While waiting for the night of the plan, the thing I thought most likely to interfere in the plan was Hiram finding out. We got along very casually over the next couple days and did not discuss the plan any further. Hiram showed no sign of knowing about what we were up to nor curiosity over why Flora was by the capital in the first place. I guess he was serious about not prying unless she told him herself. I thought that this kind of patience would reach its limit by the time we got ready to leave. Nightfall came and the three of us gathered outside of the cottage. We used a regular lantern to see around us since the moonstone lantern was useless tonight. Any moment now, I thought, Hiram would wake up and discover us as we left the small hill, but it never happened. I finally gave up on thinking Hiram was going to show up as we reached the point where the patrols would be.

We put away the lantern and used the light from the stars and the moving lights of the distant torches or lanterns of the Nature Clan guards as our guides. Progress was surprisingly fast and we soon reached the city’s wall. Up on the walls, we saw little fires spaced out about every hundred feet. We huddled up by the wall, waiting for whatever miracle Gaia had promised was going to eventually happen. Even to my surprise, it did happen.

The ground began to shake and I could hear the guards shouting from atop the wall. The earth quickly began erupting itself from the ground and the shaking continued for another fifteen seconds before finally subsiding. During this time, the guards had cast their lights in various directions, but simply could not see far enough through the night’s darkness. With the ending of the shaking was a hole in the ground large enough for a full grown man to crawl through. Where it would lead was impossible to know, but if this wasn’t a coincidence, it was still obvious. Taking a leap of faith, the three of us crawled into the hole and ended up on the other side of the wall. This certainly confirmed the fact that something really did want Flora to come here, but was this really all the doing of the guardian spirit?

There was no time to ponder further though as the guards may discover the hole eventually and put the whole city on alert. We quickly ran towards the center of the city where the guardian tree was. Spread throughout the city were wooden poles with lanterns hanging from them. I assumed they were meant to act like lamp posts but they were spread out a lot further than I thought practical and some of them gave off no light whatsoever. They may have run out of oil or maybe they were moonstone lanterns; I did not bother to check. As we made our way forward, I noticed that the city appeared very sparsely populated. Other than the lamp posts, the only other structures I made out looked to be sheds. I suppose some of the larger silhouettes could have been barns or barn houses, but there were no lights on inside of them. We continued to move forward but encountered hardly any change in the scenery. Just more shadowy objects that looked like sheds or barns and the mix of lit and unlit lantern posts.

After about half an hour of running, we were met with another wall. It was a bit shorter than the outer city wall and this one did not appear to have any guards positioned on top. As I considered whether this was something scalable, we heard voices coming from around the corner. Along with the approaching voices, I could also see a light shining from that direction. I silently drew my sword and charged up a bolt through my body. I whispered over to Tasha to get ready as well. Right as the lantern revealed our shadows, the two of us attacked. Before either of the guards had a chance to say anything, we knocked them both out. Flora jumped out from behind us and caught their lantern that was about to crash onto the ground. I had forgotten to consider that as well.

“Well, I think this wall’s too high to get over, which means we have to find the gate,” I said as I killed the light in the lantern.

“But won’t there be even more guards at the gate?” Flora asked.

“Yeah, but it’s not like there’s any other choice. And seriously, what’s up with this place? I don’t think I’ve seen any houses so far, just tons of open space and sheds.”

“Well, I’ve never been to Eden before, but, grandpa said that it’s not that great of a place to live if you’re not a noble.”

“What’s that mean?” I feel like these details about the city should have been presented at an earlier time. But honestly, I didn’t think it would look so weird beyond the wall.

“He said that although nobles live in castles or estates in the center of the city around the guardian tree, the rest of the people live underground.” I looked at the ground.

“Underground? What do you mean? How would we even get underground?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t think it would look like this either so I thought it would be more obvious.” Hiram’s knowledge would probably prove invaluable if he was with us right now. Well, we would just have to make due with induction.

“Do you recall some big hole in the ground anywhere?” I asked.

“No.” I think I could barely see Flora shake her head in the darkness.

“Anything seem out of place as we came here?”

“Other than not seeing any other people?” Flora responded after pondering for a moment.

“Yeah. Hmmm, wait. If most of the people live underground, there has to be more than one entrance. It would just be ridiculous to get everyone to enter and exit out of one location.” I looked back towards the supposed sheds and barns. “The way underground might be back there.” I picked up one of the guards we knocked out. Worst case scenario, we can still use the sheds to hide them from further patrols. “Tasha, you get the other one. Let’s go.” We went back towards the closest barn. Upon a closer look, it really did look like just an ordinary barn. We opened the door and tried to peer inside but it was pitch-black. We took a couple steps inside and the typical barnyard smell rushed up our noses. I tried to focus my vision and could just barely make out what appeared to be rows of stalls and sleeping animals. Darn, this really was just a barn. We dumped the guards inside and left.

“Maybe it’s in another one?” Flora suggested. I didn’t really expect that to be the case but we went to another one anyways. We tried one of the sheds this time and inside were some miscellaneous tools and equipment.

“Well, if we can’t find it, why don’t we just dig a hole in the ground?” Tasha said.

“Just dig a hole in the ground?” I asked with bemusement. “Flora, do you think Gaia can make us another hole?”

“Um, I don’t know. Should I ask?” I guess sarcasm is harder to read when you can’t even see each other’s faces.

“No, forget about it.” I said, trying to shut down the silly topic.

“We can’t just give up here!” Tasha exclaimed.

“Shhhh!” I nearly hissed at her. If the guards caught wind of us at this point, it would be next to impossible to escape.

“Oh…sorry, dad.” I wracked my brain trying to figure out what to do next, which is particularly difficult since a part of me just wanted to leave right now. Why should we have to spend so much time in dangerous territory for some potentially prophetic stuff like this?

“Um, Mr. Braith?”

“Yes, Flora?” I responded after letting out a long sigh.

“Um, maybe we could keep looking through the other sheds and barns?” I wanted to tell her that I thought her idea was stupid, but I figured I ought to let her see that for herself.

“Alright, we’ll keep looking.” The next shed and barn we checked were just like the first ones. However, I figured we ought to check one more so that Flora got the point. Perhaps a part of me just wanted to make Flora give up so we could just leave. No part of me, however, expected that the next barn would be devoid of any animals. Instead, there was a large hole leading underground. I almost wanted to slap myself, and not because I specifically thought I was an idiot. I would also like to put some of the blame on whoever was in charge of designing this city’s infrastructure.

We walked down the sloping hole and saw a light in the distance. I drew my sword and took the lead. I quickly knocked out an unaware guard and dragged him towards the hole’s entrance. We then continued onwards. The tunnel had little stones spaced apart on the walls, just like the path that led to the Spirit Altar of the Thousand Bolts. I wondered why stones like these weren’t used outside of tunnels, but I quickly stopped thinking about that. I’d rather not distract myself in such a situation. After some distance, we came across a fork in the tunnel.

“Got any ideas?” I asked them both.

“Um…left?” Flora answered.

“Why left?”

“I don’t know…” Her face displayed her honesty.

“Tasha, you got anything to add?”

“Right?” Tasha’s honest confusion was clear on her face.

“Why right?” I asked, not really expecting her to have a serious reason.

“Uh, I thought you just wanted to hear the two options again…” I blinked a couple times. Did we all just get stupider all of a sudden?

“Alright, left it is.” We went left and after a few minutes, I could hear voices from around the next bend. We slowly crept forward to listen in. I figured this was a bit smarter to do, now that I’ve realized just how little we know about this city. Even idle banter could be useful, perhaps?

“Did they finally settle down?” the first guard asked.

“No, they’re all still up, complaining that we have to evacuate them in case the tunnels collapse,” the second guard responded.

“As if. The roots of the guardian tree span throughout all the tunnel walls, a little shaking isn’t going to do anything.” The shaking was even felt all the way over here?

“Well, what would you expect them to think? They’re Battle-Hardened; all they know how to do is hold a weapon or a tool. Manual work is all they’re good for.”

“Yeah, but we’ve been relying on them for that a lot more now.”

“Only because of what’s been going on. The King said he has people looking into it. They should figure it all out soon enough.”

“Still kind of scares me, though. Can you imagine the look on my nephew’s face when he couldn’t make a contract with the guardian tree?” Wait, what? I found myself creeping in closer.

“Yeah, yeah, you told me this a bunch of times already.”

“My sister says he’s still pretty shaken up about it. First one in the family. Heck, has this ever happened before?”

“No, never heard of this before.”

“It’s already been two months. I mean, imagine what’ll happen to us if this continues? A whole generation of the Nature Clan without Farseer magic?” I crept in a bit too close as I realized my shadow was probably visible to them. I instantly pulled back, but the shuffling of my feet made a louder noise than I intended.

“Hey, what was that sound?!”

“What? Is the earth shaking again?” I could hear the guards shuffling around.

“Sounded different this time. Let’s go check it out.” The two guards walked around the corner and Tasha and I knocked them out. However, one of them managed to shout out before we took him down. I looked down the tunnel, expecting a slew of guards to suddenly start running towards us. I was really hoping it wouldn’t happen, but, of course, it did.

“You hear that?!”

“Yeah, there’s some intruders in here!” Four guards came running towards us out of another pathway further down the tunnel. Tasha and I fought them head-on, and I was surprised when one of them deflected my attack and almost pushed me back. I quickly charged another bolt through my body and quickly countered, slashing at the side of his chest through his leather armour. He let out a gasp as he fell to the ground. The next guard had a spear but with my new speed I just barely dodged it while moving forward and hit him on the side of the head with the flat of my sword. He let out a cry of pain and stumbled a bit. Wait, why are these guys so strong? The spearman recovered and charged at me again. I dodged and the spear tip connected with the tunnel wall. I tried to hit him in the head again but he ducked. He then turned his body and charged into me with his shoulder. I was knocked back a little bit but I quickly recovered. The next time he came at me, I dodged and slashed at his arm. He dropped the spear and I slashed at his leg. He went down on one knee and then I knocked him out by hitting him on the head. I turned back and saw that Tasha had finished knocking out the last of her two opponents. Flora was behind her, trembling a bit.

“Alright, let’s keep-”

“Dad! What are you doing?!” Tasha suddenly shouted at me, interrupting my words.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“Why did you do that to them? Are you trying to kill them?!” I looked back down at the two guards I took out. The spearman was probably fine since I didn’t hit any vital areas. As for the other guard that I slashed in the chest…I knelt down and felt for his pulse.

“It’s fine, he’s still alive.” I almost breathed a sigh of relief.

“No, it’s not fine. Why are you suddenly fighting like this? We were just knocking them out until now.” What’s with all of these complaints?

“They were a lot stronger than I expected, so I had to use more force,” I explained, trying to mask my growing annoyance. I waved my hands around a bit while speaking, which then happened to splash the bit of blood off my sword and onto the ground. “Listen, Tasha, we don’t have time to argue. We need to hurry before more guards show up.” Tasha clearly wanted to argue some more but Flora cut in.

“Mr. Braith is right.” Her trembling stopped. “I’m sorry that this is how it has turned out so far. If both of you want to turn back now, I understand.” Tasha let out a sigh of exasperation.

“No, we will stay with you, Flora. Let’s go.” Tasha walked by me and shot me a look. We continued and we reached another split. One was where the guards came from. Along the other path, I saw tree roots clinging onto the wall.

“This probably means we are getting pretty close to the guardian tree,” Flora commented. Naturally, we should go down that path now, but I did not forget what the guards were talking about. “What’s wrong, Mr. Braith?” she asked, noticing me staring down the other path.

“Well, the guards were talking about Battle-Hardened…”

“Wait, does that mean the prisoners are down there?” Tasha asked, momentarily forgetting her anger, I think.

“What prisoners?” Does Flora really know so little?

“The Nature Clan took some prisoners from the Bronze Territory,” I answered.

“Yeah, and we’re here to rescue them!” Part of me wanted to ride along this momentum to keep Tasha in a good mood, but I had to shut it down.

“No, Tasha, I already said we weren’t doing that. We were just supposed to relay some messages.”

“What?” Flora asked, still seemingly unable to fully comprehend what we were going on about.

“You don’t need to know the details. Come on, we will take care of your business first, and then we’ll come back here if we can.” Flora shook her head.

“No, if you came here to help some people captured here, then we have to go to them first.”

“You might run out of time, though.” Flora clenched her first and nodded to herself.

“Don’t worry, I can take it from here. I just need to follow the tree roots and I should end up right where I need to go.”

“Flora…” Tasha didn’t seem to quite believe the brave face Flora was trying to put on.

“Tasha, don’t worry about me, either. I can do this, if I really am supposed to meet with Gaia, I should be able to do at least this much by myself.” Then, before we could argue further she ran down the tunnel. “Help those people!” Flora’s act was really quite unexpected. Although, that’s probably because I thought I had gotten to know her a bit better. If the only thing I knew about her was that she was trying to sneak into the capital like we were, I’d say her action was typical. Well, everybody has different sides to them.

“Tasha, let’s hurry up and do what she said.” Honestly, I still kind of wanted to just retreat, but I had too many obligations for why I couldn’t. Tasha nodded and we went down the other path. It went on for a rather short distance before turning in one direction and stopping at an open door. We stepped inside and I saw several cells with iron bars. However, there was a guard in the room who noticed us immediately. Tasha quickly charged at him and knocked him out.

“Who are you?” one of the prisoners asked, a mix of fear and excitement in his voice.

“Just a messenger,” I tried to say calmly as I walked over to the nearest cell. Inside were two male prisoners, both wearing ragged clothing. Their arms were behind the backs, their wrists shackled together. From another cell, another voice called out to me.

“Well, a visitor. This is truly a first.” The voice was smooth and deliberate. I turned around and walked up to him. He was a tall and slender man in a cell all by himself and he was dressed and cuffed like the others. He had a wild mane of black hair and a beard that went down to his collar. Despite the wild and unkempt appearance, however, he had a certain air of authority around him. “A messenger, you say? Could I hope that that is merely an understatement?”

“Sorry, but I really am just a messenger. Is it safe to assume that you are all prisoners from the Bronze Territory?” He gave out a hearty chuckle that didn’t sound quite right.

“To not hear my homeland called a colony almost brings a tear to my eye. Well, messenger, I am Mordecai, chief of the Bronze Clan.” Judging by the total silence from the other prisoners, I took his words to be the truth.

“Alright, good. Now, I don’t have that much time, so could you please quickly answer a couple questions.” Tasha suddenly appeared by my side with a ring of keys.

“No time for questions, let’s just get them out!” she said with a smile on her face.

“Tasha, I said we weren’t going to do that!”

“Why not? We already have the keys, and isn’t freeing them a much better way of proving they’re all safe?”

“We are in the middle of an enemy capital, how do you plan on ensuring a safe and successful prison break! We just need to hear a few things and move on. We should not directly involve ourselves in these things!” Tasha ignored me and went straight to Mordecai’s cell, picking out a random key. I grabbed her hand. “No!” Mordecai let out a cough that actually managed to quiet me.

“I can see that there is a bit of a disagreement between the two of you so why don’t I make this easier. Free us all and I’ll tell you what you want to know. Oh, and don’t worry about us once you do. We can take care of ourselves.” He gave a smile that only served to unnerve me more than reassure me. I ignored Mordecai and turned back to Tasha.

“Listen, Tasha, these two sides had a war with each other. What do you think will happen if you let them all go?” I shot a look at Mordecai before continuing my argument with Tasha. “You don’t want to see any more killing, right?” Tasha stared hard at me for a few seconds.

“Now, now, I can understand your concern,” Mordecai interrupted. “Clearly, the two of you are ones of high moral standing, as to be expected of our soon-to-be heroes. However, if you are concerned with more bloodshed, please, rest assured. We shall do our utmost to subdue the remaining guards with non-lethal force while freeing the rest of our comrades.”

“The rest of your comrades?”

“Yes, this is only one of four cell blocks we are located in. Now, this process will result in quite a bit of chaos, but…I don’t think that’s necessarily something you are opposed to?” He was right. A big distraction like a prison break would probably help us and Flora out quite a bit. However, I didn’t think I could trust him. “Also, rescuing us will definitely result in a much larger reward than just delivered a message.”

“I’m not here for some kind of reward. I only came by as a favour, so just forget about it.” No, I definitely couldn’t go along with this.

“No reward?” Mordecai let out a roaring laugh. “You really are something!” Mordecai pressed his body right up against the bars. “I like you, meet me back in the Bronze Territory and I will definitely provide you with something you will not regret.” There was just something about his smile that always made me doubt his words. It wasn’t a feeling that he was outright lying to me, but there was definitely more going on. As I thought about that a bit more, I heard the sound of a metal clink. I had let go of Tasha’s hand and she quickly went about unlocking Mordecai’s cell while I was focused on him. Tasha swung the door wide open and went inside to unlock his shackles. I tried to grab her shoulder but she suddenly kicked out from behind her and it connected with my gut. I fell over and gasped out a breath of air. This made two things clear. One, Tasha was clearly no longer in a mood to listen to me, and two, she has probably never seriously fought me before. Mordecai’s shackles fell to the ground and he stretched out his newly liberated arms. Tasha then turned around and made ready to free the others but Mordecai stopped her.

“Ah, hold on. I greatly appreciate your work, but you are in a hurry, are you not? We can take it from here.” Mordecai took the keys from Tasha and the first thought in my head was, don’t you dare touch my daughter. I got back up and pulled Tasha away from him. “Thank you again, and know that I am very serious about rewarding you. Please do stop by soon.” He walked by us and casually strolled over to a cell and quickly picked out the correct key. I couldn’t just let this be, could I? Tasha pushed me away from her and gave me another angry stare. I was about to say something when the ground suddenly started shaking. Flora! Damnit, I gotta move on.

“Come on, Tasha, we have to get to Flora!” Her expression softened a bit, but only because she was thinking about Flora now. Mordecai calmly waved us goodbye as we ran back. The shaking quickly subsided and we quickly ran back to where Flora separated from us. We went down her path and soon entered a very large, empty room. It had several different entrances, but one of the entrances looked to have more tree roots coming out of it. However, when we tried to go down that path, we found ourselves blocked by a shimmering, green wall of light. When I tried touching it, it felt solid and it didn’t budge the slightest bit when I tried bashing at it. I tried peering past this barrier but only saw more light up ahead.

“What’s going on here?!” Tasha yelled out as she repeatedly slashed at the wall to no avail. I was about to put forward my thoughts on it when we heard shouting coming from behind us. Pouring out of one of the paths into the large chamber was a group of at least ten soldiers. I tried slashing at the wall once more time but it was futile.

“Tasha, this way’s blocked; we have to try another!”

“But Flora could be behind here!”

“Great, the soldiers won’t be able to get to her, then!” I grabbed her arm. “Come on, if Flora really is behind there, then I’m sure it has something to do with Gaia. We gotta move!” I tugged at her again and she relented. The soldiers came at us but this was not the time to fight. The two of us picked another path at random and ran. We outran them fairly easily and after a few minutes in that path, it suddenly sloped upwards and we found ourselves back above ground. We were in the middle of some kind of courtyard with a pair of soldiers.

“Halt!” one of them ordered as Tasha simultaneously took out his companion. In an equal show of defiance, I knocked the weapon out of his hand and took him down as well. A brief look around the courtyard showed that we were on the other side of the inner walls and the guardian tree was much closer now. It was also the major source of light on this moonless night as it shimmered with the same kind of green light the barrier underground had.

“Where do we go now?” Tasha asked. Do we head to the tree since Flora was headed there too, or do we just retreat?

“Come on, the tree isn’t far now. Flora should already be around there somewhere.” Tasha nodded in agreement and we headed in that direction, which required us to go inside what I presumed was the palace. If I wasn’t in such a hurry, perhaps I would have spent some time taking in the architecture and the splendor of the interior. To describe it simply, though, although the walls outside looked to be stone, the interior was almost entirely wooden. There were also various artworks spread throughout, most of them paintings and murals of pastoral scenery, as well as tapestries with fantastical depictions of the guardian tree.

As we made our way haphazardly through the winding corridors, I found it rather strange to not encounter any more guards. At some point we even went up a flight of stairs, but as we continued on the second floor, we eventually came across a window that overlooked the courtyard that the guardian tree was planted in. I stopped for just a second at the sight of this massive, glowing sight, and realized that it was much larger than I had initially thought. However, I could not waste time marveling at this tree and decided to just head straight for it and hope to find Flora nearby. I braced myself and jumped out the window, and Tasha followed. At the time, I did not think jumping down twenty feet was dangerous and we both did land safely. However, the moment we landed, we saw the figures of dozens of people positioned at the corners of the massive courtyard. As they moved in closer to encircle us, we were able to make them out a lot clearer under the light of the shimmering guardian tree. Coming towards us from behind the guardian tree were two individuals that looked different from the rest. One of them wore a bronze breastplate with some kind of symbol engraved in the centre. He also wore a bronze helm with bronze bracers and greaves. Beside him was a man wearing a heavy cloak made of some kind of fur as well as a golden crown atop his head.